Rani Gupta

Rani Gupta's litigation practice at Covington & Burling LLP focuses on representing corporate policyholders in high-stakes insurance coverage disputes.

She's helped recover hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for clients such as Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, ExxonMobil Corp., Freeport-McMoRan Inc., Goodwill Industries of Orange County and Health Net LLC.

She's been at Covington for about nine years, following law school at Stanford and a clerkship in Billings, Mont., with Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Judge Thomas is one of the smartest persons I've ever met," Gupta said. "Being able to talk through cases with him helped me think about how to frame my arguments in order to make them persuasive."

In a billion-dollar claim on behalf of Major League Baseball and all 30 of its teams, Gupta is seeking recovery from underwriter defendants for COVID-19 losses in ticket sales, advertising revenue and more. The case is in its early stages, but she obtained an early win in February when the court largely denied the defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings. Oakland Athletics Baseball Co. v. AIG Specialty Insurance Co., RG20079003 (Alameda Co. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 16, 2020).

In a similar suit for the National Hockey League, Gupta helps lead a team against the league's property and business interruption insurers to recover more than $1 billion in pandemic losses. San Jose Sharks LLC v. Factory Mutual Ins. Co., 21CV383780 (S. Clara Co. Super. Ct., filed June 28, 2021).

And for client Goodwill Industries, Gupta led a Covington team that successfully defeated a demurrer in a case seeking insurance coverage for the losses Goodwill incurred due to COVID-19 in Orange County. She said the win opens the door for Goodwill to recoup significant losses. Goodwill Industries of Orange County, Cal. v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co., 30-2020-01169032-CU-IC-CXC (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 6, 2020).

"We're breaking through the blockade the has halted cases like this at the pleading stage," Gupta said. "A lot of it has to do with bringing the court back to the reason why you buy insurance coverage--simplifying the case and putting the issue in language the court can understand."

In the Goodwill case, the defendant insurance company argued that COVID-19 did not cause "physical loss or damage," an issue being heavily litigated in courts across the country. But Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson found allegations of the presence of the virus sufficient to state a claim for direct physical loss to property.

"That came from the way Judge Thomas taught me to see beyond the contractual text complications. He never saw cases removed from common sense understanding," Gupta said.

- John Roemer